This weekend I am in Columbia, MD presenting The Female Fitness Formula Workshop at the Optimum Performance Training Institute with my colleague Lauren Perreault.

Between work, travel, and slight brain burnout recently (summer fever perhaps??? 😉 ) I did not have a chance to finish the third installment of my seven part series about how to train for a stronger press, Single and Double Kettlebell Press Ladders.  I expect to have this post up next week.

I try to post weekly on my blog however, that does not always happen.  I do post on my Iron Body By Artemis Facebook Page daily, and lately I’ve been posting more detailed thoughts and tips on my Facebook page.  If you’re not already a fan, head on over to check it out and become a fan.  You can “Like” Iron Body By Artemis HERE.

Xena Can Eat Cake.

How much weight do you move around in your training sessions?

This week I wrote about how Xena Can Eat Cake and the more weight you push, pull, carry, and swing (if you swing kettlebells) in your training sessions then the bigger your Strength Glass.

“Absolute strength is the glass.  Everything else is the liquid inside the glass.  The bigger the glass, the more of everything else you can do.” ~Dan John, Intervention

The more of everything else you can do, including eat cake, or in my case pie 🙂

I was inspired to write this post after I reached my goal of 5 sets of 5 repetitions of double 24kg (106lbs) kettlebell front squats this past Monday June 23, 2014.

You can read the complete post and see the video by clicking on the Facebook Post below…

Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone.

This week I also posted about how if you want to see results, then you need to get out of your comfort zone.

Yes, I know I write about this a lot, but if you seek progress and change, you need to spend some time living outside of your comfort zone.

I wrote the post in the context of how I changed up my conditioning the past few weeks.  Usually I finish my training sessions with 10-15 minutes of either one arm or double kettlebell swings.  These past two weeks I decided to focus on two handed swing intervals.

You can read more about how I changed up this conditioning, why it put me out of my comfort zone, and a format suggestion for swing intervals by clicking on the Facebook post below…

I Can Do This. 

I started a program back in March, that I wrote for myself, in order to improve the skill and strength of my press with the ultimate goal of a strong 24kg (53lbs) press.  I have had some of the best training the past four months than I have had in a long time.  I haven’t missed a press yet and I have had very few, if any, bad training days.

Hopefully I did not just jinx myself 🙂

At the beginning of June, my friend and colleague Kathy Dooley was presenting a NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT) seminar at Iron Body Studios.  One day during the seminar she asked me to press 22kg (48.4lbs) in front of all of the 40 seminar participants as a demonstration about how grip is not just about the hand.

I was nervous, but I knew I could do this, and I knew I had to do this.  I had to get over my fear of pressing heavy weight in front of large groups of strangers.

I nailed it.

You can see the video and read the post by clicking on the Facebook post below…

Then last week I had this feeling that I could double press 22kg (96.8lbs) kettlebells.

Sometimes as you progress through a program, you just have this feeling that you can do things.  This is how I felt about pressing those bells.  I put it off for about week and this past Wednesday June 25, 2014 before I started my double bell press ladders that day, I tested myself.  Sure enough, I pressed those suckers like a knife through butter. Like BUTTAH!

It felt great.  Strong, rewarding, empowering and surprisingly easy.

Below is a video of my second single that day…

Do you want to learn more about press programming, my secret to achieving Superhuman Strength, and how to program in conditioning for maximal effort and minimal time?  Then I hope that you will join me for my workshop, “I’m Not Afraid to Lift” on September 6, 2014 at Drive495 in New York, NY!